down to the same consistence as the skin, which is rather thick. When
ripe, they are easily peeled, and well repay the trouble, the spines
being then much less obdurate than when green. The mature fruit is of
a deep, dull, coppery red color, and in flavor is equal, if not
superior, to any of the _red_ varieties which I have eaten in
England. I have often wondered whether cultivation might not remove
the spines from the berries, or, that failing, whether a seedling
could not be raised from them which would give us a berry far more
reliable than any good gooseberry we now have. The scorching sun of
the long, dry season of California seemed to have no effect on the
foliage, and is five years' experience I never found a mildewed berry.

"The berry is _round_, like the red English berries, instead of
ellipsoid, like their white or golden ones.

"There is also another variety, hairy instead of spiny, about the size
of your picture of the Downing; bush not so free a grower, rarely
reaching two feet, and the berry, to my taste, much inferior. Tastes,
however, differ, and it may be the more promising fruit.

"Both varieties are common throughout the eastern end of El Dorado,
Placer, and Nevada counties."

The first-named, or thorny gooseberry, probably belongs to the _Ribes
cynosbati_, and the latter to the _R. rotundifolium_. The writer is
correct in thinking that, if such gooseberries are growing wild,
cultivation and selection could secure vast improvements. When we
remember that English gardeners started with a native species inferior
to ours, we are led to believe that effort and skill like theirs will
here be rewarded by kinds as superb, and as perfectly adapted to our